1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to communication systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to networks and telephony systems.
2. Background
Today, more and more people are working from home. Sometimes it is just extending work hours, as when an employee checks e-mail from home, but other times an employee works normal hours at home to lessen interruptions, take care of a family member, or to avoid commuting problems.
This trend is also gaining ground among employers. Employers in support of the work-at-home trend believe that flexible work policies can aid recruiting, especially in tight labor markets. But even more important, employers have found that employees work more hours and more efficiently when they have access from home, leading to higher productivity.
In addition to the work-at-home work force, many employees spend days outside of the office due to travelling needs of today""s global business environment. To support off-site employees, many companies are providing a variety of tools to facilitate such employees"" access to the company local area network (xe2x80x9cLANxe2x80x9d). The latest is Virtual Private Networking (xe2x80x9cVPNxe2x80x9d)combined with broadband access or high-speed residential access, such as Digital Subscriber Line (xe2x80x9cDSLxe2x80x9d)or access via cable modems. VPNs provide the ability to gain full access to corporate data while maintaining security through authentication and encryption. As a result, employees can send and receive e-mails, essentially in real time, and access the corporate LAN.
However, telephony remains the missing component. In other words, employees who are out of the office, because they are either travelling or are working at home, must inform others of their absence from the office and provide an access number. While it is possible to inform a small circle of fellow employees, it is impossible to inform everyonexe2x80x94many callers will simply reach voicemail when they call the employee""s office number.
The conventional solution for the work-at-home employees is to install a new telephone line off of the company""s Private Branch Exchange (xe2x80x9cPBXxe2x80x9d)at the employee""s home. FIG. 1 depicts this conventional approach.
FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a telephone system 100. As shown, the central office (xe2x80x9cCOxe2x80x9d)provides telephone lines 118 to a company PBX 120. The CO is the front line of the telecommunications network and may be described as a network node on the PSTN (xe2x80x9cPublic Switched Telephone Networkxe2x80x9d). The PBX 120 is an in-house telephone switching system that many companies use to interconnect telephone extensions to each other, as well as to the outside telephone network. The PBX 120 may include functions such as least cost routing for outside calls, call forwarding, conference calling and call accounting. Modem PBXs use all-digital methods for switching and may support both digital terminals and telephones, along with analog telephones.
As shown, the PBX 120 includes extensions 122 and 132, which are connected to internal telephones 125 and 130, respectively, for at-work employees. The PBX 120 also includes extension 135, which is routed to the CO, from where the extension 135 is further routed to employee""s home 105. The extension 135 is then connected to an at-home telephone 110 for employee""s use. As a result, the employee may transfer his office extension, e.g. extension 122; to his at-home extension 135 and receive calls at home. Also, the employee may originate calls from home using the PBX extension 135.
The conventional approach, however, has many drawbacks and is impractical. For example, the conventional approach is costly, since it involves initial setup charges as well as monthly payments for receiving a leased line from the CO. Also, the PBX extension 135 is tied to a physical location, e.g., employee""s home 135. As a result, a travelling employee cannot benefit from the conventional approach due to its inflexibility. Even more, calls originated from employee""s at-home extension would indicate to the recipient, through caller identification information that the employee is not at work by displaying an extension number different than employee""s at-work extension number.
An ideal solution would be to move the employee""s PBX office extension to the employee""s physical location when the employee is off site, on ad hoc basis and without the need for additional wiring or recurring costs of maintaining physical wires. It is also desirable for an employee to transfer his PBX office extension to an off-site location, but at the same time appear that the employee""s calls are originating from the employee""s on-site or office extension.
Accordingly, there is an intense need in the art for systems and methods which can provide virtual extensions to any off-site location, on ad hoc basis, with various features such as virtual extensions appearing as on-site extensions, and further, an ability to move the employee""s office extension to wherever the employee may be physically located.
In accordance with the purpose of the present invention as broadly described herein, there is provided a telephony method and system.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a user may establish a communication link with a telephony provider through a communication gateway, a communication device and a wide area network, such as the Internet, to obtain telephony service from the telephony provider. The telephony provider includes a VPN gateway in communication with the wide area network and a communication network. which communication network is in communication with a telephony server. The telephony provider further includes a telephone switching system in communication with the telephony server. The telephone switching system provides at least one telephone line for allocation by the VPN gateway.
The user establishes a connection with the VPN gateway via the wide area network using a personal computer in communication with the communication gateway and the communication device. In one aspect of the present invention, the personal computer may establish a connection with the VPN gateway using a high-speed access device, or in another aspect, using an analog modem capable of simultaneous transmission of data and digitally encoded voice signals over the PSTN. The user may then establish a connection with the communication network via the VPN gateway, for example, through a log-on technique. After a data connection is established between the communication network and the personal computer, the user may then log into the telephony portion of the communication network, which may involve additional security layers, and request a telephony service. In one aspect of the present invention, after establishing the data connection, the communication network may automatically proceed with providing a telephony service to the user, since the user is identified as part of the data log-on process.
In another aspect, the user may be asked to enter his/her internal extension number. The VPN gateway may then instruct the telephony server to start monitoring the user""s internal extension for status changes and inform the VPN gateway of such status changes. In one aspect of the present invention, at this point, the VPN gateway may allocate one of the VPN phone lines to the user through the wide area network, the communication device and the communication gateway. In another aspect, the VPN gateway may allocate a VPN phone line to the user on a need to use basis.
In one aspect of the present invention, if the telephony server receives a status change notification indicating an incoming call on the user""s internal extension, the telephony server informs the VPN gateway of the incoming call. In turn, the VPN gateway allocates one available VPN phone line to the user for the purpose of transferring the incoming call. The VPN gateway then establishes a logical connection with the communication gateway and sends information regarding the incoming call to the communication gateway, which is in communication with a telephony instrument.
In yet one aspect, the user may choose not to answer the incoming call and allow the communication gateway to send a message to the VPN gateway requesting that the incoming call be transferred to the user""s voicemail on the internal extension.
In another aspect of the present invention, the user may initiate a telephone call by taking the telephony instrument connected to the communication gateway off-hook. In that event, the communication gateway detects the off-hook status and proceeds to-establish a logical connection with the VPN gateway and send a message to the VPN gateway to advise the VPN gateway that the user would like to establish a telephony connection. The VPN gateway then allocates one available VPN phone line to the user. Once a VPN phone line is allocated, a dial tone is generated on the telephone for the user. After receiving the dial tone, the user starts dialing a telephone number, which number is sent to the VPN gateway. The VPN gateway requests that the telephony server command the PBX to dial the number using the user""s internal extension. In another aspect, the number may be dialed using the VPN phone line itself. In yet another aspect, after dialing the phone number using the user""s internal extension, the telephony server may use a conference option of the telephone switching system to conference in the VPN phone line and the user""s internal extension. In one aspect, the telephony server may mute the user""s internal extension.
In another aspect, the telephony system of the present invention may be used to inform the user of messages on his/her internal extension via a VPN phone line. In yet another aspect, a service provider may employ the present invention to provide network and telephony services to virtual corporations and individuals.